Sunday...20 July 2014

Have just been doing some research into the lyrics of the song Three Rivers Hotel. 
The Three Rivers Hotel, made famous by Slim Dusty in a song by the same name, is located at Greenvale. 
This is not the actual hotel where the song was penned by Stan Coster. The hotel reference is actually to the "Mess Hall" at the construction camp where Stan Coster penned the song. Stan worked as Grader operator for Thiess Brothers on the construction of the railway line. The origin of the name "Three Rivers Hotel" is not because the "hotel" was ever at the junction of the three rivers - Burdekin, Star and Clarke as stated on some web sites. The lyrics mention the camp at the Star River. This was one of 6 camps that existed on the length of the Greenvale line. 
During 1974 North Queensland was severely drenched by a very active wet season and work on the railway line ceased for days, even weeks, on end. The workers in the camps had nothing better to do than spend the day in the camp "boozer". Each camp had a boozer which was a basic demountable building with outdoor covered seating. During one of these wet days the water started to enter the confines of the boozer and immediately some of the men started digging some improvised drainage around the boozer to channel away the water. As they built the channels, some wags named them after the 3 main rivers (Burdekin, Star and Clarke). These were joined up roughly as they do in real life and the boozer was then named "the Three Rivers Hotel". 
One of the drinkers that day was Stan Coster who penned the song on the spot and performed it for the drinkers - the rest is history. The three rivers referred to in the song do not join up but the Star and the Clarke join the Burdekin at completely separate locations and therefore there could be no hotel on the "junction" of the three rivers the song refers to. 
So there you go, it would seem I did not have dinner at a famous location after all. Oh well, it was still a good night out and it is nice to see the Greenvale 'local' keeping the spirit of the song alive.